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[center][color=#d8ff66][i][b]J U L I U S  G A R D E N E R[/b][/i][/color][/center]________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[color=#b2b2b2][i]Interacting with : Lou, Seoyeon, Upstairs people[/i][/color]


[color=8e51c2][b]"Thank you Julius!"[/b][/color] Lou exclaimed, giving Julius an uncomfortably tight hug that went on for at least two seconds longer than was necessary. Worst of all, Lou hadn’t let go of the sex doll and he felt the slick plastic slide against his back as he squirmed, sandwiched between an idiot and an inanimate object. Eventually the pressure on the doll became too much and it popped out above Lou’s hug, floating merrily in the air before feathering gently to the ground. With the absence of Matilda, Lou’s arms slugged him in the back as he repressured the hug. His skin was slightly sweaty. Julius would have preferred hugging the doll.

He looked down at where it lay, staring blankly at the ceiling with unblinking eyes. Was it insane to talk to a sex doll? Well, Lou did and he was the sanest guy Julius knew. He mouthed threats at the plastic face as his roommate finally released the hug.

[color=8e51c2][b]"I will make you proud, I will be what the kids say very tight tonight!"[/b][/color] Lou continued, his grin wide again and his enthusiasm undampened by Julius’ attempts. Facepalming was so five years ago, but Julius did an internal one anyways. The administrator who’d paired the two of them together in dorms was getting coal from him for christmas this year. Lou was quickly rescuing his beloved, scooping up the doll from the ground and settling it on a chair, which it quickly slipped off of. 

[color=8e51c2][b]"She probably will be okay."[/b][/color] Lou said, looking at Julius with wide puppydog eyes. [color=#d8ff66][b]“[i]She[/i] - ugh, I mean [i]it[/i], is an it, Lou. You know these things aren’t real people right? Despite what they look like,”[/b][/color] he added. The manufacturer of Matilda was clearly on a passion project, as the face was lovingly sculpted into an almost passable form- if you ignored the wide red mouth. [color=#d8ff66][b]“Also, I’m pretty sure these things are made to handle a slightly tougher beating than the one you gave her… it.”[/b][/color] Julius filled a cup from the tap and gulped it quickly, looking around the room for an escape route. The cold water was refreshing, but the backwash taste reminded him of the weed brownie he’d eaten earlier and brought him up coughing. 

The buzz had well and truly set in by now, and he was feeling slightly on edge. Wasn’t weed supposed to make you feel happy and dopey? At the moment it seemed to have frayed his nerves to a thin wire. He jumped in alarm as a sudden beeping came from behind his back, but turned to just find a very stoned looking dude retrieving a piping hot pocket from the microwave. His heart was racing, and he lifted a hand to his chest to feel it thumping against his ribcage. Why was he so paranoid? It seemed like there was a monster hiding in every shadow, a plotter behind every alcohol-induced grin that wandered past. He looked back at the couches where the group of students were huddled, conspiring. They must have planned that he would eat this brownie, get high… and then what?

Julius didn’t know what they had planned for him, but he saw the way Ylva’s purse bulged. She had to have a gun in there- or a knife. He wasn’t going to stay and find out. Even Lou, who had seemed merely dim and happy moments ago now had the face of a wicked, grinning conspiracist. They were all in it. All out to get him. [color=#d8ff66][b]“Hey Lou, do you want to stay here and look after Matilda? I’ve got to go check something out,”[/b][/color] he called over his shoulder as he beelined for the door. Somewhere private, somewhere safe. That was what he needed. 

To his displeasure, he found Dorm One occupied by a group playing beer pong across a hastily set up trestle table. [b]“Hey mate, you here to join in?”[/b] one of them called, but Julius was already gone, slamming the door and taking a moment to calm his racing heart on the other side. Where could he go if even his own dorm was taken over by the enemy? In the corner of his eye the green glow of an exit sign hummed softly, and his unhinged eyes darted to below it, where the door to the stairwell waited invitingly. Of course, there would be no one on the other floors, with the parties. Everyone would be down here or on the floor above enjoying themselves. The top floor would no doubt be empty- somewhere he could sit and collect his thoughts.

He rushed up the stairs two at a time, bypassing the floor above where party noises and lights spilled from under the door crack. It was only after he continued another flight of stairs past that he found himself stopping. The door to the floor had been left slightly ajar, but no light came from the hallway behind it. Hopefully that meant no one would be there. He inched the door open, peeking his head to see what was happening on the other side. 

Oh.

Halfway down the hall a man lay crumpled on the ground, doing a worryingly good impression of a dead body. This university was all a trap, and if he didn’t get out soon, he was next. It was the only explanation! Julius looked around cagily. Was it just him or were the walls closing in, pressing against him, trapping him… He spun on his heel to retreat, run away into the Alaskan cold and never come back to this god-forsaken place ever again when his conscience twinged. Maybe it was the angel on his shoulder speaking, but for some reason it felt wrong to just leave the poor guy alone and hurt in the dark hallway. 

Julius tiptoed across to where he lay, keeping the light on his phone close to the ground so he could see where he was standing. Once he was closer, he could take in some of the grisly details. The side of his head was slick with dark blood, staining the carpet red like spilled juice. Bleeding was a good sign, right? Well, to a point. He wouldn’t still be bleeding if he was dead.
Julius quickly stripped his coat off, with a twinge of regret at the feel of the expensive fabric, and bundled it against the wound. The light creamy colour was immediately stained like the carpet, but Julius kept it tight against the guy’s head. Hopefully the pressure would help staunch the flow.

Now that he was close enough to notice, he saw the man’s eyes were as wide as saucers, staring blankly up at the flickering lights on the ceiling in a way that reminded him of Matilda the doll. His pupils were also frighteningly dilated, and speckled with small white dots. The way his eyes stayed open, despite his unresponsive state freaked Julius out a little, and he closed the lids with a gentle finger. That felt wrong, though. It was what they did to dead people in movies, and there was no way this guy was going to [i]die[/i].

With a start, Julius realised the trouble they were in. People didn’t just show up bleeding from the head alone in hallways. They had to get there somehow. A half-possible theory of a drunk partier stumbling and hitting his head floated to his mind, but it was quickly discarded in favour of the much more exciting, much more horrifying possibility that [i]there was a murderer in the university[/i]. Feeling like he’d descended into a real life game of Cluedo, Julius took another look around the hallway. It was deserted, the lights low and the dorm doors firmly closed. If there was a murderer lurking around these halls, safety in numbers seemed the safest route to take.

Julius tied the coat firmly around the head wound before seizing the poor guy by his feet and started to drag him down the hallway towards the stairwell door. Someone on the floors below must know what to do. Surely out of all the students here, at least one of them was studying med. Julius puffed with each tug- the guy was heavier than he looked, and the coat kept catching on the rough carpet. Most of all, Julius wasn’t as fit as he used to be in his schoolboy days.

Yet he still managed to drag the victim all the way to the exit door, where he paused for a quick breath and a look over his shoulder. The hallway was still empty, or so it seemed at least. Feeling slightly guilty about abandoning him, even if it was just for a moment, Julius vaulted down the stairs towards where light crept invitingly out of the open door of the floor below. His earlier introversion was forgotten, as any people were better company than the creepy dim lights and possibility of being murdered on the floor above. He booted the door open, taking in the scene only long enough to see a crowd of people clustered around something.

[color=#d8ff66][b]“Does anyone here know anything about first aid? I’ve found a guy with a serious head wound upstairs and he’s bleeding pretty bad,”[/b][/color] he said authoritatively. Remembering some half advice from a long time ago about taking charge in an emergency, he pointed at one of the bystanders, a Korean girl who was already holding a phone. [color=#d8ff66][b]“You, call an ambulance.”[/b][/color] The crowd of faces parted, craning their necks to see who was interrupting their little get together, and Julius could finally see what they were all crowded around.

Oh, [i]fuck[/i].